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Keep Life Simple

By Corinne Rodrigues on May 1, 2013

They were standing at the corner of the road waiting for the school bus – a father and his five year old daughter.

Suddenly she tensed. A dog and his walker were approaching her and she was scared. She appealed to her father for protection.

Her father prodded her and moved her out of the dog’s path. She relaxed and smiled. I heard him tell her, “All you needed to do was move. Simple.”

Then, as if he realized the wisdom of his own words, he said to himself, “Keep life simple.”

I don’t think he realized the other part of what he had said: : “All you need to do is move.”

On my morning walk, I got my dose of wisdom for the day. Both parts of what he said were so relevant to me. This year, I have decided to keep things simple, but have a tendency to get overwhelmed by unnecessary things sometimes. I postpone the important for the urgent. And the urgent is linked with the first part of what that father said – I need to move. I’ve completely slacked off on my walks and writing my morning pages – both of which are important to my well-being.

When making choices, opt for the plain, the simple, the functional. Less goes wrong when you stick to life’s standard equipment. ~ Linus Mundy

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A lover of words. A self-acceptance blogger. A blogging coach. A book reviewer. A woman happily journeying through midlife, moving from self-improvement to self-acceptance and enjoying being herself.
Corinne writes at Everyday Gyaan, reviews fiction at CorinneRodrigues.com and encourages writers and bloggers at Write Tribe and offers offline coaching to writers and bloggers at The Frangipani Creative, located in Secunderabad, India.

I just love what you wrote here BS. I was initially thinking of my brother and my bosses ~ they have so many things to do and yet I find it very difficult to believe that they are truly living a fulfilled life with all the money that they are earning…then I read your post. So I gave that piece of thought to God~ those things occupy even a space in my life and I do worry so I think I’ll let God do His work 😛

I’m on the third day with Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life, and ‘keeping life simple’ is God’s message for me these days too. What struck me was this:”Prune away even good activities and do only that which matters most.”

Your post spoke of simple living and yet there are so many things to ponder on ‘how’ it could be lived 🙂

Wonderful lessons here. What you wrote about keeping it simple reminded me of a principle I learnt when I used to work in software development, which was KISS. This stands for keep it simple and stupid. I learnt to keep software simple, so that anyone could use it. A similar principle can be applied to life itself.

We just end of creating more trouble for ourselves when we make things to complex.

I hadn’t realized you were involved in software development, Hiten. How interesting that you say that. Galen said it applied to martial arts too. I know KISS is used in public speaking – Keep it short and simple.

No matter what, life moves on..ain’t it? So, why not keep it simple? 🙂 So sweet, Corinne..these all are simple things which we all know, yet we keep forgetting. Thanks for the gentle reminders you give. Also, I miss your posts on writing techniques…How to make short sentences and all that 🙂

So true! In martial arts we learn to do as little as possible to defect an attack. If someone is moving towards me with a kick or a punch, sometimes all I need to do is move to the side a few inches. Easy in principle but hard in practice because we become afraid and panic. At least I do–ha!

Corinne thank you so much for visiting Khronos Design FB page, and add your blog post link. Loved your conclusion on the article, it is exactly this that we should do “keep things simple” and “move” with one step at a time. No worries, if we can understand that and do this exercise we’ll be good! 🙂

Keeping is simple sounds simple doesn’t it? Yet, we complicate and cloud things by over thinking and worrying. Corinne, I too am seeking to simplify my life by staying present and engaging with only what is in front of me. I tend to project ahead and fret about certain tasks…like doing my taxes;) Staying present wards off the worries and helps my creativity to soar.
Sending love Corinne!!

C…thank U so much… Do U know how much U touch our lives everyday!!!We forget basic things in life and then cry about our mess..and U know what is special when U say it?..It isnt preacy..It is like a ray of light that falls and heals and shows the path…with an embrace that helps face and clear the mess…Lots of Love..Thank U.. 😀

Keeping it simple . . . Something I want so much, too, but too often let things get out of hand. Loved this lesson here, Corinne. Great reminder to not blow things out of proportion and to take everything in stride.
Blessings, my friend!

Being trying to weed out what was such a time waster and focus only what I felt I needed to do. So back to better nutrition and food for the soul. Everything else needs to take a back seat for now. Have shut a number of websites down and another one is going this month and another later this year. I will renew the one I am in touch with others and I have until next year to figure out about the others. Keeping it simple for now seems the best move. There is only so much time in the day and I really want to make what matters count for something.

It really is much easier if you keep it simple, Corinne. We’re human and forget. I think the trick is to forgive our selves when we derail and ‘keep moving’. The beauty of morning pages is they can be started again with ease.

Just seconds before reading this, literally seconds, I said to my husband “Maybe I should stop drinking caffeine for the next week, to see if that’s the problem.” I’ve been having very painful muscle spasms in my face you see, I’m on a ton of medications that aren’t really helping. So what if I ‘just move’? I’ll let you know how it works out 🙂